Awkward situation for climate denialist Abbott to be meeting Barack Obama right now

Is that a lump of coal or are you feeling happy? The Age, June 3, 2014 –Tom Arup Environment editor, The Age “……Foreshadowing an executive order that emissions from US coal power plants be cut to 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, President Obama told his weekly radio address: “As President, and as a parent, I refuse to condemn our children to a planet that’s beyond fixing.

“The shift to a cleaner energy economy won’t happen overnight, and it will require tough choices along the way. But a low-carbon, clean energy economy can be an engine of growth for decades to come.

“America will build that engine. America will build the future. A future that’s cleaner, more prosperous, and full of good jobs. A future where we can look our kids in the eye and tell them we did our part to leave them a safer, more stable world.”

President Obama has moved slowly on climate change. He failed to pass a national emissions trading scheme through a hostile Congress. But he has set limits on emissions from vehicles and poured billions into renewable energy. And he is increasingly trumpeting international action to stop climate change as the world aims to negotiate a global climate treaty by the end of next year.

In Australia, the Abbott government has taken steps to scrap the carbon price and replace it with a plan most economists consider ineffectual. It wants to axe the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation, strip $1.3 billion in grants from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and has cut money from carbon capture and storage. It is reviewing the 20 per cent renewable energy target for 2020, with an eye to watering it down.